Woke up this morning and I had some thoughts that I wanted to share with you. These thoughts motivated me and I hope that by the time you’re done reading this, you’ll be motivated as well.

If there are so many Christians living in the United States, why are there so many churches closing their doors for good? If those churches that are still open are full, why do they struggle to find laborers to do work for God in the church?

Just imagine if every person who professed to know Christ did what Christ says His followers should do!

When I go through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and I see Jesus call His disciples, He says, “Follow me.” In Matthew 4:19, Jesus tells Simon (Peter) and his brother Andrew, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”

If you go through the entire Bible, every single person who was ever called out from their previous life and called to serve God, did something. They weren’t called out and then sat there and did nothing. They didn’t wait until someone conducting a survey came along to ask them if they followed Christ. Take a look at Moses. Moses left his previous life, led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, was God’s spokesman to them, and led them through the wilderness for decades. Take a look at every single disciple. They left their homes, their jobs, and their families to step out and follow a man named Jesus. They didn’t have a New Testament to look at and a record of all the miracles Jesus had done. They didn’t have transcripts of His messages to others. They had faith and they were called out by God to do something. Paul received a visit from Jesus while he was en route to have Christians arrested, persecuted, and martyred. God showed up, called him out, and he ended up serving the same Jesus he killed others for following, traveled throughout the world at that time, and ended up writing the majority of the New Testament.

So I ask myself, and you, this question: What makes you and I different from these men? Were we not called by the same God who called them? Were we not saved by the same grace as these men?

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ²In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. ⁴And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”

John 14:1-4, King James Version

Did you read at the end of this passage, Jesus tell His disciples, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And until I come again, I just want you to relax, wait, and do nothing”? Of course not! That would be absolutely ridiculous. Jesus instead tells them in Matthew 28:19,20, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: ²⁰Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

We are not called to be boring for Jesus. We are not saved through Christ’s death on the cross to do absolutely nothing for Him on this earth and with our lives. We are called out and separated from the world to be a light to the world. We are called to share the gospel, to love, and to serve.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. ¹⁴Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. ¹⁶Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Mark 5:13-16, King James Version

We are not called to go to church and just be a warm body with a heartbeat in a seat or pew. We are called to serve. Am I telling you that when you’re done reading this that you should immediately enroll in classes through a Bible College? No. That may be the case for some of you, but not all. Am I telling you that you should leave your family and job and sell all that you have and move to a mission field? No. What I am telling you is that if we have indeed been called out by God to serve a greater purpose than the one we had before He called us, we need to be all-in. We need to do something for Jesus. Every single one of us can serve in some way! Need some examples?

Nursery workers

Cleaners

Youth workers/volunteers

Hospitality workers

Greeters

Ushers/service hosts

Prayer team

Small group leaders/workers

And the list goes on! There is a place for you and I to serve right in our local church. We don’t need to head off to Africa, India, or another country to serve Jesus and fulfill the mission that we were called to do. We just need to have an open heart, a willingness to serve Him, and a refusal to grow stagnant and complacent in our Christian walk.

Will you join me?

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ²Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. ⁴Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Hebrews 12:1-4, King James Version